Dr. Jorge Lazareff, a gifted neurosurgeon from UCLA, volunteered his services to travel to Changchun, China in November, 2002, and perform surgery on several orphans born with spina bifida.  This was the birth of our international surgery program.  The local Changchun news covered the trip and the miracles that took place during that week.  A young couple somewhere in that area heard about the story through the media and immediately rushed to the hospital with their son.  This child was their only child, and he had been born with severe spina bifida.  In many countries, children born with any kind of special need are considered of little or no worth, and abandonment of these children is common.  This couple so cherished their son, though, that they refused to give up on him, and even named him Ma Jia Le, which means, "happiness of Ma" (the family name.)  When they arrived at the hospital, hoping against hope that they finally had something to offer their son, they were told that Dr. Lazareff had already returned to the United States.  Frank and Hannah (our Chinese contacts for this project) sat with them while they wept out of frustration.  When we heard this story, IAAP helped us immediately began plans for Dr. Lazareff to return to China and asked Hannah to please encourage these parents that we would not forget them.  We desperately wanted to help them and tell them what their dedication and courage meant to us.  Unfortunately, because of SARS and because fund-raising took so long, Dr. Lazareff was not able to return until August, 2003.  But Jia Le's parents remained persistent, often returning to the hospital to find out when they might hope to see this American surgeon.  They were overjoyed when they learned that he was finally on his way back to China.  Jia Le, along with 6 other children (these others were all orphans) did have his surgery during the week of August 11-15, 2003.  His recovery was wonderful and the results in the weeks following his surgery were truly miraculous.  He was able to move his legs, and was even beginning to walk, pushing a type of walker.  His parents were ecstatic and tried over and over to express their gratitude to all who had made this possible for their son.  They were so proud of him, taking him out into their local village to show him off.  What an amazing blessing for this child to be born to such parents as these!

However, in mid-September, 2003, just weeks after his surgery, Jia Le was involved in a bicycle accident with his mother.  He sustained a head injury in that accident, slipped into a coma, and died a number of days later. We cannot even begin to express the devastation and grief we felt when we learned this news.  We were tempted to cry to God, "Why??  Why would this happen now of all times and why to these parents who were so determined to love this child who, we are sure, was viewed as being of “lesser value”  by some people??!"  We wouldn't even pretend to have answers to these questions.  There are many things in this world that we don't have answers to, and it is a waste of time and energy to get stuck in the place of asking why.  So we cried tears that day and then turned our hearts toward this young couple -- especially the mother who was with Jia Le at the time of the accident and surely must have been blaming herself.  We wanted to let her know that her son's life was not in vain -- that he touched many lives; that their passionate love for this child and tender care of him touched many lives.  We wanted her to know that we respect her, and we wanted to try to convey our love and sympathy to them both in their time of unimaginable grief.  One of the ways we hoped to do this was by re-naming this portion of our ministry, "The Ma Jia Le Memorial Project."  We have done this in Jia Le's memory as an attempt to show our love and concern for his parents.

We may never have the honor of meeting this special couple, but we will always be thankful that they have been a part of our ministry and our lives.  Jia Le, we will never forget you.

This picture is of Jia Le and his parents, taken just a few days before his surgery at the hospital in Changchun.